Part 4 - Up up and away.

Today I want to start with a couple of interesting developments that have occurred this week.

Firstly the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has replied to a Google submission that the "self driving system" can be driver of the vehicle. This is in the situation where there are no manual controls and the car itself is the driver.

There are other issues surrounding that but the NHTSDA may change their rules based on submissions from manufacturers regarding some regulations on auto safety feature including foot operated braking systems. The full story is here .

A video of the statement is here 

This is also interesting in that California is formulating laws that require a licensed driver in a vehicle ready to assume control at all times when running in autonomous mode. It will be interesting to see where this goes now.

 This new NHTSDA statement brings up a whole new range of options.

Google argues that having controls within an autonomous vehicle is actually a risk as drivers may try to take control of a situation that the computer can handle better.

Given that the car may legally be the driver, does that mean that the driver assist development going on as a transition to fully autonomous vehicles can be bypassed and move directly to the end goal?

If this is the case then Google, Lyft, Uber and others that want to bring in automated taxis will suddenly be in an arms race to be the first to market and the whole process could happen far faster than originally anticipated. Google has stated that it wants them on road by 2020, this new statement may even accelerate that.

I think that the development of autonomous taxis is the catalyst that will launch the entire world wide move to autonomous vehicle for a very simple reason. The cost to manufacture anything new before economy of scale kicks in is very expensive. To build a consumer vehicle with all these features would put it initially out of the reach of the average driver.
To a company like Google, Lyft or Uber it makes a great deal of sense to be the first to market and grab a huge slice before anyone else can. When you can afford to order these vehicles in taxi fleet quantities the unit cost is far lower than it would be for a normal consumer. Once these are mass produced to a standard model the cost of custom produced parts becomes less as they become standard parts produced in bulk. 

Back off the soapbox and back to the news.

Secondly Right here in Perth Western Australia we will soon have an autonomous bus appearing on the streets. 

Purchased by the RAC this vehicle will be tested first on the RAC private testing area before being considered for use in public.The electric bus, built in France can carry up to 18 passengers at up to 45 kph. The state government will be using this as a catalyst for the legal framework required in Western Australia to allow autonomous vehicles on the road. Interestingly enough the law in WA requires a licensed driver with at least one hand on the wheel at all times while the vehicle is in motion.
The official media statement from the Minister for Transport is here.
An interesting quote from that media statement that is being heard more frequently just about everywhere is: "It is not a matter of if this technology will come to WA, but when it will, and that time is fast approaching. " 

This is the type of bus being trialed.

Now that I have started of with current news I might carry on in that vein this week, mainly because I am too busy to write something truly meaningful.

Google, arguably the leader in development of autonomous cars and one of the few I haven't for some reason referred to frequently (possibly because the Mercedes and Teslas are way cooler) has plans now for its electric autonomous car to be charged while driving.

Meanwhile in other news, the military has taken a keen interest, considering that the basically kicked of the whole process with their original challenges in 2004 but according to this article are only looking at the simpler part of driverless convoys.

An interesting debate is whether autonomous cars will largely replace private ownership and become a car as a service. An interesting article sees the US automakers backing the thought that people will want a car like a mobile phone, not hired but owned.

On the other hand Uber is openly discussing a driverless world and its plans are squarely aimed in that direction and as the Uber CEO stated "When there's no other dude in the car, the cost of Uber becomes cheaper than owning a car" 

I would welcome feedback and possible debate as this is all new ground and, as yet, there is no "True Path"as to what will happen in the future and all options are still open.

So help me out here I want to start some discussion that might help to get this whole thing more widely known.

Feel free to contribute.